Update and map of Fourmile fire near Boulder, Sept. 7

UPDATE @ 10:50 p.m., Sept. 7

The Boulder Office of Emergency Management, after surveying 5-10% of the burned area, has identified 53 houses that have been destroyed by the Fourmile fire. Due to the fire activity, they were not able to collect data in other areas.

ABC7 has information about the early stages of the fire, including transcripts from radio conversations and a report that a vehicle colliding with a propane tank may have started the fire.

At 8 p.m. the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center reported:

Type 1 Incident Management Team, Thomas in briefing at 1000 on 09/08. 6,128 acres. IR [fixed-wing Infrared] flight tonight to determine size. Counting of structures lost will begin tomorrow. 20 Subdivisions west of Boulder have been evacuated and 3 major county roads are closed. Fire is growing around the entire perimeter. Crowning, running, and spotting fire behavior has been observed.

In fact, one of the US Forest Service infrared aircraft, a Super King Air 200 twin-turboprop, N149Z, has already flown over the Fourmile fire, and it looks like the Cow fire in Rocky Mountain National Park as well. The map below shows the aircraft’s flight path as it arrived into the area from Boise, flew over the two fires, possibly dodged some rain or thunderstorms, and landed at Rocky Mountain Metro Airport at 8:08 p.m. It has the capability to downlink the digital imagery wirelessly via Aircell while airborne. Then an Infrared Interpreter retrieves the files from a server, analyzes the data, produces a map showing the heat sources, draws an accurate fire perimeter, and calculates the acreage of the fire.

So, within a matter of hours we should have an accurate fire perimeter and acreage.

=========================================

UPDATE @ 6:15 p.m., Sept. 7

At a 4 p.m. press briefing today fire officials said that 7,100 acres had burned (later changed to 6,168 acres at the InciWeb site) and the fire had forced the evacuation of 3,000 residents. An inversion in the morning prevented air tankers from taking off, but later in the day eight air tankers had dropped 90,000 gallons of fire retardant by the time of the briefing. Three helicopters are also working on the fire. About 2,000 residences are without electricity in the fire area. With about half of the burned area being surveyed, they have identified 63 structures that have burned.

Here is a map produced today by Boulder County showing the perimeter and the evacuation area for the Fourmile fire. (We added the notes in red at the top.) The original higher resolution version of the map is HERE.

Here are some updated maps of the Fourmile fire near Boulder, Colorado.

The perimeter of the Fourmile fire, as of 6:00 a.m. Sept. 7, 2010. Click to enlarge.Map of the Fourmile fire, showing heat detected by satellites at 1:05 p.m. on Sept. 7, 2010. The yellow line with the cross-hatching is the perimeter as mapped by firefighters today.

HERE is a link to a topographic map showing the fire perimeter as of noon today, but it is difficult to make out much detail.

================================================

UPDATE @ 12:20 p.m., Sept. 7

Five heavy air tankers were available at the Rocky Mountain Metro Airport as of this morning at 10:30.

Here is the “spot weather forecast” issued by the National Weather Service at 11:00 a.m. this morning specifically for the area of the Fourmile fire near Boulder:

The Fourmile fire has burned at least 3,500 acres and destroyed dozens of homes northwest of Boulder, including the homes of four firefighters who were working on the fire. Some of the communities impacted by the fire include Four Mile Canyon, Sunshine Canyon, Gold Hill, Sugarloaf, Pinebrook Hills, and Boulder Heights. Approximately 3,500 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders.

The map of the Fourmile fire near Boulder shows that the fire has spread quite a bit towards the northeast compared to the map we published yesterday. On Monday the strong winds prevented aircraft from working on the fire until after 5:00 p.m. when the winds decreased and three were assigned, but on Tuesday morning four heavy air tankers, one lead plane, one large Type one helicopter, and two air attack ships will assist the ground-based firefighters, according to the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.

A few hours after the fire started a Type 2 incident management team was ordered, but due to the size and complexity a higher-qualified Type 1 team was ordered last night. On Tuesday the one of the Rocky Mountain Area Type 2 teams will work with the Boulder County Type 3 team.

Cooler temperatures and winds speeds of 8-12 mph on Tuesday should produce less extreme fire behavior than we saw on Monday.

28 thoughts on “Update and map of Fourmile fire near Boulder, Sept. 7”

Winds are much calmer than yesterday but weather forecasts predict they will blow to the south soon (tomorrow; <18mph by most estimates). Given the topography of this area and its landcover, can anyone give some ballpark figures on the probability that the fire would reach Boulder Canyon Drive (i.e., CO-119)?

This morning I was talking to a deputy at the store and he thought Gold Hill is pretty much gone. Of course he’s not a fireman so might not be a first hand account. Somebody else said Wallstreet is also gone!

Betsy – I’ve heard mixed reports but it sounds like Gold Hill Inn wasn’t affected, so I’d have high hopes for houses along main street. You’ll probably get the most up to date information by listening to the Boulder Sheriff & Fire transmissions.

The map only shows on a very coarse scale areas where heat was detected by a satellite orbiting hundreds of miles above the earth. The areas identified on the map did not necessarily even burn, or if so, 100% of the areas marked may not have burned. So it is not possible, by looking at the map, to tell exactly what burned or did not burn.

Anybody have an idea of the area by ALDER LANE? From the map it appears OK, but still I am 1000 miles away and my parents perm. residence is there. They are even further away than me at the moment though. Thanks and God Bless all of you!

We live across the street from the eastern evacuation perimeter (near Mt. Sanitas). I haven’t been able to find any information on the direction the fire is going. Does anybody know? Media reports haven’t been helpful. Thanks for the information here.

This site is the most accurate I have seen. I took an old access road to bypass the road block on Sugarloaf and drove to my house on Mountain Meadows. The entire road is still good including wild tiger.. But the fire is really pushing south over arkansas mnt. There were few houses in lower Sugarloaf that were still at home with power with the lights on. The firefighter I talked to said they were not going to let it come over and are putting everything on the line. I love those guys.

I use MatLab for my simulations and you would be able to do this calculation using it if you had the mapping toolkit. I would be able to do the calculation if they had out the perimeter coordinates somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. Also, nice MODIS images. Thanks for all the info.